S5 E12: Currency of beauty in Africa: the origins of colorism!

My African Cliches (English)

What is your definition of beauty? “Is it a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight” as defined the oxford dictionary?

Obviously, definitions of beauty vary across countries, cultures, religions and language. Some are more introspective, others based on physical aesthetics and others on social status. When we impart this oxford definition of beauty into an African context, it takes on a more complex meaning, particularly with regard to history, specifically colonialism and slave trade interacting with patriarchy to perpetuate white western standards of beauty, by socially and economically rewarding those closest to this standard.

This is known as colourism, ‘Africa’s colonial hangover, “shadism”, skin tone bias, pigmentocracy or the colour complex, describing the system of discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, among people of the same ethnic group.

Good morning dear passengers, I’m happy to welcome you to a flight, or rather a promise, a promise to begin unpacking colourism; a concept that has historically been constructed across gender to inform the currency of African women’s lives.